The Huddle - Episode 106 - Blue Collar Cruise #1

In this episode we take a deep dive into the internet and various publications to uncover and discuss controversial topics that are crucial for everyone in the blue-collar sector to talk about. This episode is dedicated to bringing these pressing issues to the forefront, sparking discussions that challenge the status quo and inspire thoughtful debate. Join us as we explore these vital topics, shedding light on under-discussed issues that affect the industry and workforce. Tune in to be part of the conversation and stay informed about the challenges and changes shaping our field.

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

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what's up team welcome to the Huddle your weekly Playbook where we strategize on not only playing the game but

changing it from mastering the fundamentals of the craft to distinguishing yourselves in the

marketplace we're here to give the installer a voice and ensure you're equipped with everything you need let's

band together and Forge a new Legacy in floring this is where you belong welcome to the

team what's up what's up Mr Daniel what's up my brother uh just

texted and said he's not going to make it he's over uh picking up his son he's got a allstar game today that starts

pretty soon here and he's running into horrible signal and stuff like that so

all right as uh as we all know we we would rather not have him on here than to have them all breaking up and stuff

yeah being like a robot robot well

today I would say with me as always Mr Daniel Gonzalez uh Jose is is you know

often driving around in a truck and so we'll miss him today but uh we have the

first episode of the blue collar Cruise hopefully you guys are ready to uh

participate the blue color cruise is easy we basically find interesting topics in the construction industry and

blue collar um work Fields find the art articles distill

them down break them down discuss them give you our opinions kind of wrap about them a little bit your

participation is necessary so if you're watching right now we need your comments

uh it'll help the conversation keep going and uh so how was your fourth my

man it was uh it was not bad we actually didn't we lit a uh we lit fireworks but

before that the family just went to the ball field and actually had a family ball game cooked us cooked up some tacos

and actually had my mom uh my my wife took a picture of my mom hitting off of

my son was pitching to my mom it was actually oh that time she she didn't run though she had a she had a run some else

she had a runner yeah so it it was it was a fun time though to actually see see everyone out there and you know just

playing we didn't go to the Beach we didn't do nothing we just all got together as a family and you know did

some this did some family stuff it was a good time how was yours it was good man

um got cut short a little bit had one of our kids uh my younger son learn that

you do not hold lit fireworks ah imagine that now I'll tell you it was

a smoke bomb gonna say boom boom or yeah so it wasn't quite as like obvious as uh

you think but it was a one of them smoke bombs that go shoot color smoke off out

of each end and he had a hold of it one end went off and then when the other one

went off it burned his hand good got him he learned a quick lesson about

fireworks and uh yeah so we got him doctored up and continued the night but

we did have to shut it down a little bit early and we were over at some friends

house and they had some big stuff so it was kind of it was pretty fun for the uh

time we spent but cut it short a little bit Yeah I tell

you the U baseball game or the softball game whichever you were playing sounds

like a pretty damn good time I'll tell you that it was a good time and then as far as the holding fireworks my daughter

kept on wanting to hold a Roman candle and shoot it because the other kids were and I was like like no sometimes these

things just they come back at you and my nephew Emilio that happened to him one year where it just came back and almost

got him in the face and I'm not trying to to have that happen to my daughter so

she was pretty sad about it but she probably is still sad about it she's sitting over there at the table right

now well her digits thank you yeah she'll be all right all

right well I'm glad everybody made it out safe and uh not Scarred For Eternity my son's just

fine he'll be better for it so as usual sometimes you gotta learn learn the

lesson the hard way so sometimes that's the welcome everybody uh joining us today again today's our first blueco

collar Cruise um for any of those who just joined us Blue Collar cruise is uh we

Cruise the internet and find topics surrounding the construction industry and other bluecollar work fields

and um bring up interesting and and uh sometimes controversial topics we'll

give you our opinions kind of wrap about a little bit get your opinion so comments are not only welcome they're

necessary and we hope you guys are participate and we can have a good time so I'm going to bring up our first topic

of the day and this one's coming out of construction today and it is Saudi

Arabia is building $800 billion doll line to Nowhere Saudi Arabia is

initiating one of the world's most ambitious Urban Development projects it's called the line part of a larger

neom Mega City initiative according to construction today this

initiative uh or this Innovative City aims to redefine what Urban living uh is

all about it's 170 kilometer linear design promising zero carbon footprint

print and seamless Integrity of Technology sustainability and human Centric

design this uh aligns with Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision and seeks to

address Urban challenges through a vertical layout that enhances efficiency and connectivity while minimizing in

environmental impact what do you got on

this look at that thing look at that who mows all that how the hell they get

grass to grow in this in the in the desert like that actually I heard this wall is like extremely tall and some

other designs of this it's um it's like basically a massive

building uh that runs down the center of this thing uh they got Gardens and all

kinds of stuff like it's it's an indoor City in a lot of it's its own self-sufficient

Community yeah dude I don't know about this man it's like you'd be watched all the time you'd always be surveyed you'd

be I mean it's bad enough I mean I mean what's different than just anywhere

right now to be honest with you I mean everything you're watched basically anywhere you

go true but there's different levels of camera there is and different levels of

of like face recogn you can only imagine they'd build that into this whole thing

like it would just be part of

the the design and and and U architecture of it would be a

freaking to me it'd be like a monitored City every step you made they would know

where you're at what you're doing what you're buying in more integrated kind of

uh in a more integrated kind of way so basically ran by

Amazon yeah R Jeff Bezos I would not be surprised if he didn't have a you know

some hand in it that's um yeah so what do you guys think about this let us know

in the comments we'll Cruise comments read them out loud and get your take but to go from the a little deeper in the

article the um a lot of the the The Architects and

um designers have they're actually having problems keeping them all having

problems you know there's been plenty uh many of Architects that have withdrawn due to human rights and ecological

concerns debates over what I just said privacy and uh a technologically

advanced Urban environment and how you would be watched from every moment like

even uh well possibility not to mentioned that has led to the

displacement of local tribes which I know anybody of uh you know Native

American Heritage uh here in America or even you know uh Aztec uh Mexicans

Mexico like probably uh that hits home right

like taking our land man taking our stuff happen all over

again yeah it's kind of it's kind of crazy I mean that that

is um that is a massive development you think about 800 billion and yeah it

would be displacing if you just I mean from the rendering there um and I'm not sure if

that's an actual rendering of the of the um of the overall design or if if that's

one of the options but the footprint of that thing being 170

kilometers you are building and all this uh technology and infrastructure being

you know um part of that design like I said I I can I can see why they have

problems with keeping people involved in this type of a project one the scale and

the risk kicking people you know local tribes out of their native land it looks

like it sounds like um but all that being said the uh the line remains a a

focal point of global attention representing the complexities and aspirations of reimagining urban

spaces in the 21st century you want to talk about like design and all this stuff

like what like in your house try a smart house this would be the if you ever a

smart City basically right yeah like everything tracking everything so so

look like um my wife went and I went to Sam's Club over the weekend and what when we

were checking out you know how they used to you check out and they had you know

the scanner on your phone so I'd scan everything and then they'd have to scan my phone and then they scan

it you know multiple things in the cart to make sure that I actually scanned them and now they have these things in

there you just push your cart through and it's like AI stuff where it's

automatically detected and they don't have to scan anymore it's just yeah it like automatic read what's in your thing

it reads what how many things are in the car it automatically counts them it scans the barcodes and everything so how

when you're when you're thinking about stuff like that you have your credit card on file yeah so I still scan

everything in the app and then I check out in the app and then you just push your cart through and there there's

still people standing there because it's a new technology but it's like you just push it through and they're like all right keep on going instead of having to

scan you know personally and it's like this is this is crazy I mean that's what

with AI and the technology where where things are going it's not ridiculous to

think of an entire city being this way where things are can you imagine that

going going to a store there and you just walk in grab what you're G to get and you walk right out and just charges

your car it's on file for the entire city that you live in that's the thing though they have those in airports too

ran by Amazon you you haven't seen those or where you actually pay with your palm

print I so you just go in there's cameras everywhere you grab whatever you want you go out you put your palm on the

reader you go out it automatically charges your card on file well the airport you kind of expect it a little

bit because you already know you're being you're being watched everywhere yeah like I do I have clear

to to um speed up my travel uh you know

read your eyes and your face recognition all that stuff so you're kind kind of like already on the grid in every way

possible but would you want to live that way I I think uh the only way to to

figure that out is to I mean I don't know about starting a community that big maybe start in like an apartment complex

or something where you know it's uh you can start out small and then test it out

but an enti I know this makes me think of that movie with Sylvester Stallone

where he like gets frozen in time and he's a cop and he comes back as a cop in the

future and it's like everything if you say the f word or you say [ __ ] or

something like there's all these ticket things everywhere and just spits out a ticket for you have you seen that movie

I forget what the name of it is is that that's not time cop is it ah no it is

time cop with um with um oh that's John Claude Van John Claud vaname you're

fine yeah no this is with Sylvester Stallone

it's got he he every move they make like if uh someone was smoking in a

non-smoking Zone it' spit out Demolition Man Demolition Man that's what it is

this this whole concept reminds me of Demolition

Man I mean that's the thing if uh if they

don't start I think it's just a matter of time before it actually someone does

it anyways and like I said it's start out something

small and then well it's it's in the works anyways right but if people keep on backing out

how how much of uh of the vision is gonna actually come to life how how much are they goingon to have to shrink this

thing before it comes to light yeah who knows it's it's you know

the two biggest things is trying to keep an architect sounds like you know keep Architects on board

um it even says in the article renowned Architects have withdrawn from the uh

project critics argue that the lack of sustain the lack of su uh sustainability

and the moral double standards of involved AR Tex undermine the Project's

ethical Foundation it's a technological Utopia

that R raises significant privacy concerns yeah dude I don't know I vote

no I wouldn't I wouldn't want to live there where every move I made was surveyed was known maybe you're not

getting a ticket like in Demolition Man but every single one well we got my brother actually

watching on on Facebook right now all right well

let's cruise the comments see if anybody has anything um Kevin Kevin just says

what's up I told him to come on and talk crap today so hopefully he come Kevin give us your opinion would you live in a

uh in a modern 170 kilometer long linear city that is

uh full of Technology full full of cameras watching your every moov you can't get away from him at all anywhere

by and then Nate Hall provides the alternative where there are alternative

alternative communities living off grid everywhere where you know that that's the opposite side of the spectrum right

where you don't it's like I don't want anyone in my business and I think like that's more

of where people flock to as opposed to yes I want to be watched every minute of

every day dude I I I I lean way more towards

getting being off the grid that's kind of what your home is to me you go home

you're kind of away from stuff you know uh you you get free of all that you you

know when you're driving around and you get to stop lights and stuff there's cameras and there's just this

overarching feeling to me it's that it's it's the what that it's that feeling on

steroids in this concept of a you know and

but yeah the Amish the minites yeah just good old country boys trying to uh get

away from it all too you know what I'm saying but if you really think think about

like as a as a smart home there's many people out there already that

already I know track of their own home right they're already keeping track of

their own home and then you just go on your phone and you're you're already recording

everything it's like what what are you really hiding I mean I got cameras at my house I have cameras at our office

so but that's all already it's it's all that we think it's all for us right

what do we really know talking to you until until they get hacked and

they're like all your information just went out the window here's uh one year

free subscription to this uh identity the that's all that's all you

get yeah that actually brings up like if you think about the

um just like that uh security breach you you mentioned could you imagine a

security breach or a loss of data in a whole for a whole city that is monitored

like foreign governments I don't know maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist a bit it does feel like to me that they've been

conditioning humans to be surveyed all the time and be okay with it and this is

just that next step an 800 billion doll line to

Nowhere all right well let's move on to the next topic next topic coming out of

construction today the new tall building in America has been

revealed it's um it's going to be called Legends Tower and guess where it's

at Oklahoma City right here in the Midwest baby just two hours south it's

gonna be the tallest building in America taller than the World Trade Center um

tall tallest building in America it kind of blew my my mind that they're talk that they're going to put this in um

and Oklahom Oklahoma instead of like New York or California somewhere yeah it's

not in La it's not in like Boston or any of the major cities uh it's in Oklahoma

City it's going to be 1997 feet tall um it's going to be let's see

tapering design on both sides see if I can find a see if they got a rendering

of it I don't think they do they expect the economic impact uh to

be for it to be a catalyst for economic growth and cultural enrichment in Oklahoma City it's expected to create

numerous jobs and attract investment the project signifies a major shift in the

city's economic landscape potentially transforming it into a key

destinations uh key destination for business uh businesses and Leisure

culturally the tower is set to become a landmark symbol in Oklahoma City's uh d

dynamicism i what dynamicism sounds legit to me and

Innovation that sounds like something I'd make up dynamicism

uh it's a statement to the city's Readiness take place on the global stage

dude what do you think about Oklahoma City what what I mean they're not that much bigger than a Grand Rapids or

that's that's my thoughts because we've worked in Oklahoma City before and it that that was my thoughts exactly like

it's it's not huge what is this building going to be done like what yeah I wonder what they even

did to like who who thought of this I know AO Architects and Madison yeah

Madison capital is spearheading the whole thing thing but this could be that Catalyst though right they they built

like kind of like that if you build it they will come this could be that all right we're going to build this we're gonna get a bunch of people here and

then we're gonna kind of expand off of it okay but here's a good question for

you we've been it's either last episode or the episode before we were talking

about the down uh downturn in commercial real estate and all that and in the

midst of all this they're going to build the the nation one of the world's tallest by the way 197 feet but

certainly the tallest building in America it's going to have a luxury hotel a bunch of residential units

retail spaces and it's going to be over two million square

feet well you think square feet in one building we talk about building we talk

about commercial spaces like and and I think what what we were talking about primarily was like office spaces and

shared office spaces stuff like that but when you're talking about stuff like this this is kind of what's

been more booming lately is the mixed use the mixed use stuff right where

almost kind of like what we were just talking about where it can be its own Community where you'll have one building

they can live there they'll have hotels there restaurants and then you I mean

basically you're almost looking at like them building a resort that people can

go to yeah I feel like you know that sounds like one of the things they're trying to

do is attract more you know uh more people more more tourists right become

better tourist destination and businesses I think one of the biggest

questions is is are you going to be bidding this

well maybe a floor you just the restrooms on a job like that restrooms

and the the the the shell as they call it in a new office building that's

probably a five 10 15 who knows million dollars worth of tile if you think of

the bathrooms alone in that sucker yep would you would you bet

it like you like I would bet one bathroom I'd bid the first

floor I'd be the first floor it might be a million bucks right there so

the that would be everyone start looking for for this project on go

Carrera yeah look look for uh 48 bathrooms

spanning [ __ ] it's probably more than that 1,00 feet geez man it's just that's a massive

building they say that it's that it's kind of the vertical growth because of the

residential units and kind of like you said that and that's the thing it's probably like if you look at it in terms

of like not even just phasing but just different projects within the the

project itself right it's going to be this project and then this project and then this project and it's going to be a

a multi-year multiphase thing this say would have

restaurants and probably I mean two million square

feet I know developers that own that you know been around for a long time that

have 2 million square feet under their entire portfolio this is I don't know it blew my mind that

that was in Oklahoma I thought that was was pretty freaking interesting it it

does make sense it like when when we're talking about attracting more people let's get the tourist here um over here

in Grand Rapids they're so our City's name is Grand Rapids they got rid of the

Rapids in the Grand River years ago they built dams got rid of them now they're

talking about restoring the Rapids it's this whole project that they got going on so within this restoring the Rapids

project they're building new things along the Grand River so they're

building a new soccer stadium a new ampl theater um they're relocating the city

services it's like all these things to attract more tourists we're trying to to

get more people to come here because if you think about it like we you go on vacation and all these places ran on

tourism They're ran on tourism because we bring the money so what what do you got to do to to start bringing more

money you got to spend that yeah they're try they're trying to do it in Oklahoma City's done a lot of other things they got Rapids uh to uh to your point

they've got like racetracks and things for you to go drive you know exotic cars

they they've done a lot down in Oklahoma City and they say that these buildings are are uh are symbols of ambition

Innovation and ever evolving American Dream they're also they also mentioned

in the article that they want to uh you know start building up and not out in

major cities and so maybe there's a bit about that I I think it's a pretty freaking cool thing to be going on here

in the Midwest and uh I mean you said it's only what a couple hours away from you yeah it's two

hours south straight down I35 straight out of witto Boom we'll see what kind of uh what kind

of impact it has there in the local city anybody's uh that's in some of these

major cities in the audience let us know uh what your city's building that's pretty cool

all right we're going to keep cruising next

topic there's nine ways that AI this is out of tech News nine ways AI is

transforming the construction industry we've talked about some of this stuff a lot and you know that we're pretty uh

pretty safe uh from an uh installer standpoint it still seems like it most

of these are in resource management and collabor these kind of things but I'm going to read them off

here so safety AI powered sensors and cameras to monitor job sites in real

time and identify potential hazards now that's all cool except for if you

start getting OSHA violations on job sites from AI yeah so the crazy thing is

I was just on a job site today setting a bunch of moisture tests and and stuff like that and uh shout out to flor Cloud

because I just set up a sensor there today so we're full-blown Flor Cloud

today um and we had the safety guy come through and uh as as I was just getting

I put my backpack on I'm just getting ready to leave and he stops me he's like can I talk to you for a second I'm like

yeah go ahead and he's like hey I just want to like can I get a picture of you guys like standing next to some of your

equipment because you guys are bringing in we had a air scrubber and he sees all of our hepac and stuff he's like you

guys bring in all this equipment that you know no one we don't even require and you guys

are just bringing it in I was said I'm not bringing it in for you guys I'm bringing it in we bring it in for us bro

like this is we're trying to to stay healthy but yeah you can take our pictures yeah but yes you can yeah and

he's like yeah I want to they're they're going to shout us out and like their Publications and stuff and I mean oh

that's cool so that that's the other side so AI is not remote monitoring's awesome but you

don't want to get one of them you know $500 hard hat violation because of some

AI uh you know especially boring world like we had a meeting too and I'm like

guys like on the floor when we're installing hard Hat's going to come off and it's going to be right next to us

we're bending down the thing is not going to stay on and they they're like no we understand that just make sure

it's right next to you I said yeah that kind of stuff and then if you're talking about AI just a camera's on you hard

hats off boom violation yeah that's why um you we

didn't include it in the articles but I read an article about them wanting

to move from hard hats to uh safety helmets did you read that I did not have

you ever been on a job that required safety helmets like uh the bump caps it's a it's it

looks like a bicycle helmet dude it's it's smaller the on that snap and it

snaps and yeah that we call them bump caps oh really so yeah it's like um the

drywallers wear them well this the ones we had to buy your

buddy Bezos made us we did three of the of the Amazon projects and every

everybody on the site had to have these certain uh safety helmets and they um

you know they click on they are a little bit they look goofy as hell I'll tell you that but they are a little bit nicer

to uh to wear if you're bending down and such so they'll probably just make you wear safety helmets and send you an OSHA

violation all right so the next thing they're going to be using AI for is uh

plan design I think we all know about that um there's a lot of Architects that

are um leveraging AI I wonder if that's going to help them not make as many

mistakes shout out to any of my Architects out there but man

uh so that's not super interesting I would say project management this is

just a AI tool that predicts delays and cost overruns suggesting

Solutions uh Resource Management quality control realtime

monitoring uh of the project uh to ensure that it meets all the uh all the

uh installation standards it says meets high standards but as opposed you know

as it applies to as flooring guys imagine some AI bot watching your your

Tile Guys install and like hey you get a punch list driven AI driven punch

list I'm they do have like that the matter Port

right where you can go around and do 3D of the entire thing if they just kind of

have that and then you can like zoom in and see everything I can see how that can be pushed right into

procore and you can just boom Zoom right in on something and be like yep that's where that's where that issue is that's

where we have to go fix it yeah I mean you can certainly see some benefits but at the same time the

one that probably worries me the most is just like this the whole fear with AI

and I think it's warranted is there is no humility uh many of you don't know but I

got me a nice ticket on the way here I was speeding to get on the Huddle in

time I'm down in Alabama uh visiting Don Roberts and I

got a ticket the cop was super cool I still got a

ticket um my daughter she gets out of every ticket by the way um me no chance

I'm not cute enough but that being said you know I have I have actually had

a cop plenty of time just say hey man here's a warning slow it down you know no need to be um you know nothing's

worth going that fast give me my little you know read me my read me my the the little right act or whatever and and let

me go on my way same thing with safety stuff right you're walking around job site safety coordinator or safety guy on

a job site sees you without a hard hat he's like hey put your hard hat on but you don't get a fine every time

or get in trouble every time you might get reminded but there so there's no

Humanity to it no no it's like right and wrong is so black and white from that

perspective like you wear hard hats on this job doesn't matter if you're installing tile or installing

floors boom you don't you don't have one it's a violation and I don't know maybe

they'll give you certain amount of violations but I don't know I I'm I'm uh

I'm re I would be reluctant to uh feel comfortable on a job that had a AI

powered safy what what's different what's different from that as opposed to

like the red light cameras right that I still I'm not going

to kill anybody because I don't have my hard hat on though you know you might kill yourself go blowing through a go blowing

through a red light you know what I'm saying like I I guess the risk factor to

me seems like uh the the cameras at and that's only that's still only in select

cities look how much push back that got that still gets in midwestern cities

it's I agree so we've gotten um tickets in the mail before for like Gordon Food

Service trucks that have ran red lights and it's like guys does this this

doesn't even make any sense how was how'd you even get my license plate

from it was like from Pennsylvania or something like

what yeah so artificial intelligence isn't always that intelligent is it's

it's not and then like Nate HW has a comment right here and he says that it's

a huge drain on the electric grid but I I don't know I don't have the data

for that we don't have the data for that I can imagine I mean it it's powered by

electricity so it only makes sense I don't have uh and plus yeah it may be but I'm sure

there's other ways that it saves um I think the overarching like this

Overlord that doesn't have any humility or Humanity to it is what I I don't like

about the whole AI conversation and this is just bringing it to light that it it

looks like um this is going to I mean these

are Technologies being l or used right now like right now

and so maybe coming to a job site near you shout out to all the residential guys they probably won't put them on

every residential job but if you're in commercial big projects where safety's always watched by ocean we've had like

visit our job so so that's a a conversation too because we talked about having the cameras on you in the the the

residential you know that we we already the first portion that we talked about and then already having cameras in our

own homes and then now you're talking about residential guys in construction but there's plenty of times on like the

Facebook groups where guys are like people have cameras in their house I would never work in somewhere where

someone's trying to record me yeah well I I don't know the answer I

tell you I I don't like it I can tell you that I don't like being this feeling like I you know one yeah it makes you

feel like a kid with Overlord parents those you know like a helicopter parent

that's pointing out everything you do wrong like am I going to get awards

for not doing anything wrong for doing everything right and goes into that whole social

credit score that that um both on that project we were talking about Saudi

Arabia is they they discussed that um and the Chinese having social credit

scores and you imagine you'd have a so like if your score fell below certain

amount because of whatever that you can't be on the job site or something I don't know I don't like where it's going

that's just me no and I get that on residential job sites because like homeowners are a lot more particular but

we did a lot of work in hospitals so we were always watched

anyways so we always had to watch what what we were doing

regardless yeah we're we're you know you guys are a lot like us we work on a lot of those same types of

projects like hospitals and stuff and you're being watched pretty close but this seems like you know 10 levels

deeper you imagine you know you know how they do ikra like units to go into a if

you're doing a like we did a Surgery Center and they built a erra containment

spot for when you come out of the job site you go into this icor room you got

a vacuum yourself off wash your hands get on clean your feet all this remove

the scrubs yeah you imagine like

every every step you take would be monitored and maybe that's a it got has

its upsides from a safety standpoint you know people probably wouldn't be getting

hurt as much uh make construction a lot safer but I I personally

uh just like uh speeding I'm willing to um know get the ticket I don't want I

don't want the I don't want the the overlords watching me right I mean we

we've even gotten pushed back to the point where our um app that we use to clock in and clock out records your

location when you clock in and clock out so there's there's been people that

have have not they were like I'm not working for you guys because I'm not using this app I was like all right

then like we got hella push back when we implemented the exact time at our office

it's been 10 years eight years ago probably and we had a guy that he was

from California uh his name was Gary really good dude I love the crap out of him but

he was like so against it he was like I'm not I'm not doing this thing I can

handw write my stuff you don't trust me I'm like it got nothing to do with trust it's about ease and see that's how you

get like inched into it and accustomed to it I'm part of the problem sorry

guys I mean is it there there's different levels though I think I agree

it just does it's like when we were talking about Saudi Arabia's $800 billion doll linear City uh there

there's levels to this thing and it just you're being accustom

you know gently moved into that where someday you'll be in a city it's very possible you'll be in the city where

every moveie you make is watch I'm G be with Nate Hall out in the woods somewhere like

off making your own flooring out of those the trees out there yeah I'm give me a saw meal I'm

gonna do it right baby all right so last uh last

topic of the day is something that hit home with me and I I think is one of the

deals that I hear a lot in our flooring both I I mean I have it in me when I

when I get a contract or I do something I signed the contract I made the deal

and I also see this a lot in um with our flooring installers and it's how to love

the deal you cut so this this is from construction dive and a guy named uh uh Chad uh

pringley of well-built construction he uh Consultants he's the CEO

there delivered a uh compelling analysis of the pitfalls of the con of

construction negotiations and the imper and how imperative it is for contractors

to reframe their approach to deal making drawing on his extensive industry

expertise he ass erts that many contractors um Harbor resentment after

they've made a deal you know they agreed to it and this is particularly when you

have competitive bidding you know that drives down your profits and you still

want that you know half million dollar job or something I'm sure you've been there I know we have where it's like man

you know I'm down to XYZ percent but it's a half million dollar job it's

going to keep guys you know it's like a staple project for some for you and um

you know like frankley said he's he acknowledges the challenges of that

dichotomy where profit margins lag um are the one side of the scale you're

losing but on the other side of the scale you still kind of want the job you know you still want a project um and

maybe you can find some ways to increase profit margin later but what he said is

is in his um oh I guess it was a survey or uh U

investigation that most contractors Harbor resentment towards

clients and what he's aiming to do is a you know avoid those um those conflicts

that you know will ultimately result in damaging reputation so he he advocates

for a paradigm shift mindset in mindset that if you make the deal embrace the deals you

negotiate so I know you've been there I've been there what what's your take on

this you do you have those projects where you're like you're looking at the numbers and

it's like it's getting into crunch time when you're like this is doing an hour and you're going over everything and everything looks good and you're like I

got to do something man because I really want this job so let me start tweak and let me see where I can start cutting

these percentages and then it is like and then you you submit

it and then they come back with you know the the award or or something like that

or the letter of intent and you're like man like I think I think my first

initial thought was I wonder if I messed something up or how low I was if I could

have if I was already good before I started cutting the fat I know it's that old saying like once

you get awarded a job in a competitive bid Pro uh process you're like sh what I

miss you know I want to make it where what did I miss or where did I miss what

or how much did I leave on the table I mean prle advises for like any

contractor to just stand firm on the pricing Des despite um clients pressures

for discounts and I think that if gcc's um on the bigger side

gc's uh you know I think this is probably big uh subcontractors and

general contractors that were uh studied in this but you know standing firm on

pricing there's another tactic uh that

you know we are we've always said like you get an experience with steart

Associates anybody can sell floring we sell an experience at the end of the day we want to make your project Journey as

smooth as possible that's what our goal is that's what we live for um that's our

mission you know to give you a smooth project

Journey that means you got to sell your value but how do you do that in a competitive bids situation I mean right

there you know they're going to the general contractors are stuck if there's 10 General Contractors been B get a job

they're stuck between a rock and a hard place they may want to use you for the additional value but they know their

competitor their competitor is gonna go that L low guy yeah and then so if they

don't use your the the lowest number even though if they want to use

you they they know that they may miss out on the entire project and that just

is a race to the bottom we try to you know we we hard bid a lot of work work

uh we also do a lot of negotiated projects so that's really where we like to live but you know if you are in a

hard- bit scenario I can understand their dichotomy I just wonder um why maybe

maybe I'll email this dude because I wonder why he doesn't recommend to Architects building owners and things to

do the average bid process and that is where the GC takes the

if you get five flooring bids you add them up divided by five and whoever's

closest to the average wins the project same with electrical contractors

everybody would costs go up um I think that is a hard hard one to answer right

be because you're looking at change orders right because it's change order City Once look at those low bids that's

what I'm getting at like you got change orders and these these these other things that come about where if you were

bidding a job just to do it right knowing that low bid is not going to win so there's no reason for you to be low

bid it's also no reason for you to fluff your bid because High bid's not going to get it it's going to be the average guy

so it's going to drive you to bid the job accurately with a a a profit margin

that you feel is doable there's no reason to even lower your profit margin

down to the gutter like happens in the low bid Market it in it increases everybody's um Prof

to me it would increase everybody's professionalism um you know gc's could

hold their subs even more accountable to being professional to having the right equipment to you know going on job sites

with with floor Cloud setting floor Cloud up on their projects having hepo

and all this stuff like have this higher level of expectation even when the job was bid low bid or bid through a bid

process it just would not be low bid it'd be negotiated I wonder what old prl's insights on that would be right

and I I think like you're you're talking hard bid especially when G multiple gc's are bidding this but

um a lot of the bids that we've been doing lately we know who the GC it's already an awarded GC so it's already

their project we're just going in there and biding it to them and they're picking right and that's a benefit for

us because especially when we're doing pre-bids with them because I can go through and I can say hey this is what I

would recommend and and I go through everything with them and then I do get feedback right through through the

bidding process I I go to them I talk to the head of the technical department this is

what's supposed to be happening they get back with me and they're they're talking to the client it's like they're going to bat for me because I'm giving them the

most information that I can do does do always work no that's kind of one of

those Neo that's kind of a negotiated deal or at least a select biders deal

where you're bidding only against

um only sorry I see a comment come across that made me chuckle uh but

you're only bidding you know you're not bidding against every flooring contractor and

that GC is not in that sticky situation between if I choose the low bid I'm not

going to get the bid that's why I love design build and those types of jobs or

construction management uh CM at risk type projects because it's that GC or

the CM at risk that is just evaluating the bids trying to get the best value

for uh for the customer now they still have to be you know competitive competitive they share share all their

numbers but I we've been in the position where GC goes in and like here's our low

bid but here's number two who we actually recommend and they'll recommend you know whichever bid they decide to

recommend um and often we'd be recommended because of what I was

mentioning earlier a smoother project Journey or a better project experience

and so you can get those but that is a method of construction and not a an

overall bit team practice and I just I'm just saying like let's get rid of the I would love to see them get rid of 100%

just get rid of the low bit Al together let's cruise comments a little

bit I know that Nate had a comment about AI program to win

bids I'm pretty sure there there's probably something in the works to have there's there's already Ai takeoffs and

and job costing um I I heard that uh there's some large material suppliers or

material aggregators maybe I don't know if material Banks involved but something

like material bank if you're familiar with them where they have all that stuff and you just an AI

basically draws up the estimate you just tell it the profit

margin it gets the cost for you everything I know that that's in the works I've talked to some people even in

floring I've talked to some people that are uh that own estimating companies and

uh in fact she does um like a panel at a lot of the conventions about Ai and

technology in uh Construction in our industry in particular in flooring so

yeah there's probably some of that coming along you certainly to me the the the

whole the whole thing Chad Pinkley or prle is trying to get across here is

that don't be sour over a deal that you made and leverage yourself on

relationships like I and that would be my best advice to anybody uh you're you

know the installers out there if you own a labor shop and you got a bunch of guys

you know love the deal you make and you know sell your

your service sell your journey sell your ex your uh your project the experience

that you provide with the project be easy to work with that kind of thing build those

relationships and uh but it's hard to do when we're talking about driving bids down to the lowest dollar right so well

yeah and then that's the relationships is key because you know on one of these projects that I just bid and and walking

around with the the project manager and stuff like that and he's like I'm like I always ask who else is

bidding this project and you know they give me the list and I'm like how are you feeling about these guys right now

and they're they're honest with me they're like we are not happy with a lot of these people right now and they give

they go through the list of why they're not happy and I'll be honest with them you know it's like yeah and I I think

and I and I asked them I'm like how do you guys feel with us and they're like oh we love working with you guys it's just sometimes that number is M where it

falls right and it's like but you know what you get with that

number so you got you got to be happy with what you're you're putting out there and then when you said that you

know sometimes you can't budge on your number what we've been through that too

where it's like they come back hey you're just a little bit high can you do this and it's like no sorry that's where

we're at and not even sorry no I'm not sorry like no that's where we're at and then it's

either all right they went with someone else but you know there's been a few times where it's like all right contract to be to you

tomorrow I mean yeah there's been plenty of times and I'm sure it's happened to me on the adverse side where you know

you you're trying to negotiate out a project and they want you to move your number um but I'm always

suspicious of whether or not like it's needed you know or are they pocketing this

extra money um you know where where is the where's the dollars going um there's

been some talk in the industry construction industry about a

um Nate his AI comments uh there's been some talk in the construction

industry um surrounding that where you

know having a if you're familiar with blockchain like open source like you see

it's all public your number would be seen by everybody and it's just you got

a reputation and your your reputation it's kind of like what was talked about with

the uh so social credit score you'd have a um a reputation and that part is a

earned thing so I wouldn't be against that at all like that's earned you only get a good reputation by doing good work

it's just they're sharing that uh that information so if a GC had a good experience with you they share that and

then it takes into account all that but everything would be public and and see

and able to be seen so that's another way I wonder if Pinkley ever thought about either the average bidding

practices uh that are done in some other countries um or or something like that

like a transparent blockchain bidding practice um that would also like as soon as the

Project's funded it shows that the owner paid and so all the subs know and the GC

can't hold on to the money all that would go out the window dude that would be awesome that

part would be great actually I think the whole part would be great because it would really take companies who are

trying to do it right do the business right and provide excellent experience

to their customers you you would just win in those scenarios yeah the the whole

transparency thing with the the bids too I think is a great idea I mean we've done you know a few public bids and you

get that transparency anyways and it's it's huge when you know exactly where

your numbers fall because you're like okay there's $220,000 between us and the

low Bid And We Came in second so either they miss something

or something's going on there or your Labor's a little higher or you you know

you got it's either lab your your labor cost your material cost or your markup

that's the only three things right so either your labor is a little more expensive you didn't get as good pricing

which if you sell a lot you typically do and if you're good at building relationships with your vendors you'll

get good pricing um and then on the other side of that you got your markup and any one of

those factors can come in and and play along all right well we are it's time to

to stop I I didn't even realize it is four' been an hour in already we got we

got through three topics in the blue collar cruise I hope you guys enjoyed that we're gonna find the most uh the

the coolest topics around again just to recap we did you know Saudi Arabia's the

800 million sorry that wouldn't even $800

billion City uh linear City uh the tallest building in um America is now

going to be housed in Oklahoma City just a couple hours south the old witch tow boys here and and uh another cool thing

um you know love the deal that you make and be aware if you see a bunch of

cameras on a job be aware of the AI safety uh overlords coming to a city

near you it sounds like so thank you for uh your participation in the audience

would love to have more hope you enjoyed the content if you did give us a like subscribe go watch us on YouTube make a

comment there whether you like it or you don't just let us know and if you have

any comments that you would uh or topics that you find interesting go ahead and

share him with us and one last thing is remember we're coming up on you know um

convention time for cfi's convention down in uh

Orlando uh right around the corner before you know Ty will be going again in Las Vegas uh in January the

installation competition like where they got all the Regionals coming up so make sure

uh yeah make sure if you're if you're not going to participate in the comp

someone yeah man like get someone out there to to do this we need some new

blood in these things I mean it it was great seeing people that have never been

in it before especially the the two winners last year it's my first time seeing them out there it was amazing

yeah like let's get some new blood out here let's start doing studs out there there's a lot of you guys that are good

installers that watch this show you wouldn't be watching it probably if you weren't a good installer uh get out there recommend

somebody talk someone into do a crystal do a Jose and Daniel and like they did

Crystal and put her in get somebody in the competitions we'd love to see some some uh like Daniel said some new blood

in that thing Seattle Washington like we're a month out guys so if you know

someone in the area sign them up don't even don't even

don't even tell them just be like hey I signed you up you got to be on this yeah let them know uh looks like all surfaces coming

up in September in Chicago and Dalton at

CFI uh training facility I was just there it's pretty freaking awesome in October so if you think you got the

goods or you know someone who um who does it who wants to compete get up

there and do it let's go Justin Justin how about if you're if you sign

up if you sign up for the the Chicago date I will try my best just to come and say hi because that is only like two and

a half hours from me yeah that'd be cool another C uh little note here is if

you're in Orlando if you're an installer there like reach out uh there's going to be

some programs to get um new new blood into the

convention um I hope that that uh I think CFI will be sharing some news here in the near future um if you're in

Orlando and you want to go to the show reach out uh to me or to one of the guys

they'll get you in touch with me or Ashlin and it will be a um it will be a

chance for you to get to go experience the convention uh go to the trade show that kind of thing come check us out at

our booth at go Carrera Daniel and Jose will be there we'll be there wall be there there hanging out and having a

good time so hopefully we get to meet some of you guys uh in the near future I hope you enjoyed the first episode of

the blue collar Cruise let us know what we did good let us know where we could improve uh we want this to uh we're

going to do this on and on uh every month at least once a month we're going to do a blue collar cruise I like

bringing out the new stuff and uh I love research so that's part of the uh part

of the deal so thank you thank you everybody for joining us thank thank you Mr Daniel for uh you know going on this

ride with me it was fun appreciate you Paul and uh we'll see everyone else uh next week all right guys we'll see you